My headline is actually not a play on a words. General Daniel Menard, the Canadian fellow who was relieved from duty over the weekend for (allegedly?) having an affair with a female staffer, wasn’t the most popular fellow in Kabul, I’ve been told.

Why? He was recently charged with a “negligent discharge,” or ND. Meaning his rifle accidentally went off, which doesn’t exactly endear you to your fellow soldiers(or at least that’s what soldiers I know tell me.)Apparently, this didn’t endear him to reporter Michael Yon, or anyone else for that matter. From an earlier newspaper account:

Menard is accused of “neglect to the prejudice of good order and discipline. ” In revealing the incident to reporters on April 17, Menard said his gun fired while he was loading it. No one was injured in the incident.

He was found guilty and fined $3500.

I’m probably way behind on this story, and it does seem a tad gratuitous of me to post on it again: kicking the man when he’s down. I’ve been doing a bit of that lately, much to my feigned dismay. (See Newsweek post here, though, as an aside, it looks like they’ve got some decent bids.) I think I also spent a year blogging without ever mentioning ‘sex’ in my headlines–not ideal for search engines!–and now, thanks to General Menard, I’ve done it twice in a week.

My name is Julie. I just finished reading your book, I Lost My Love in Baghdad. SOOOO good, so real. Your words really resonated with me, I too lost my love, my daughter when she was five months old. I have to say what I really could identify with was when you spoke about how it was easy to blame yourself then really cope with what happened. Me too. Too bad the grief we feel is the overwhelming need to just feel them in our arms again and yet knowing this while never, ever be. You and Andi were beautiful together, how lucky you were. We are lucky for every moment we get to share with people we love and that love us back. Thanks for sharing your story.

I am an old timer who lived through WWII. I was too young at the time to be in the war as I was five when it ended, but I do remember the ration stamps that my parents had to use to get sugar, meat, coffee, gasoline, etc.

I do remember through reading of history that the press pool at the time of the Normandy Invasion was told about it, but were told to be quiet about it until after it had happened which they did. I do not see in your philosophy, that if you had been in that press poll you would have been quiet. In fact, you would have burned up the phone lines to file a story about the impending invasion and where it was going to begin.

I say this in reference to you filing that story on General McCrystal. President, the Marxist, Obama was correct in relieving him of duty as he was stupid and his aides were more stupid in even talking to you. They should have known about your radical writings. The bottom line is that I think it really is time for you and people like you to give up your American citizenship and move to another country that reflects more your philosophy. Maybe Cuba, Venezuela, Vietnam, or some others as they exist. Maybe you would be happier in that environment.

I can’t find your email address, so I’m trying to communicate with you this way. You’re getting a lot of criticism for your Rolling Stone/McChrystal article – as expected. And why not? You just took down one of the highest ranking members of the U.S. Army with an article. I mean, this is pulitzer shit.

You’ll get criticized for YEARS. You may never get another high-ranking source. You may lose your job eventually because of this. BUT – you just did you country, and the world, one of the biggest duties anyone can ever ask. You took us one step closer to ending the war in Afghanistan. Analysts are discussing “major re-evaluations” of the war, politicians are using this to put more pressure on pulling out – Michael, you are my hero.

You’ll be better off for not having friends in “high places”, aka people who are responsible for the American Empire and the murder of millions of innocent people around the globe. You will go down in history as a hero of the anti-imperialism, anti-war crowd; you will be honored by all those who push for a more open, free, honest media; you will be loved by EVERY SINGLE veteran who comes back from Afghanistan, KNOWING we are making a mistake by being there.

You are our hero. Please don’t stop doing what you do. Please don’t let this whole episode discourage you. Please keep fighting for the real America: the America of integrity, justice and peace.

If only. The end of the Afghan “war” by the means of forced resignation of McChrystal via Hastings’ Rolling Stones article is going to happen because……….there are no other generals? Obama will be so insulted he just calls it quits? What? “Pulitzer shit”, it is more like a brain fart. Although the article did accomplish more than just replace McChrystal. That nearly three year old ad by moveon.org against General Petraeus, “General Betray Us”, was scrubbed as of 6-23-10. So finally the repubs will be happy.

Senate just voted unanimously, Petraeus confirmed to replace McChrystal. Amazing what three years can do for “integrity”, all that Senate finger wagging in 2007 at General Petraeus for his lack of such. Damn those YouTube clips from 2007 of Senator Obama “questioning” General Petraeus. Well, he’s his man now and the entire senate is in support of him.

What Matt McCoy really meant was America of integrity, justice, and surrencder. I would guess that Matt has not read much history and is too young to remember WWII. I wonder if Matt would volunteer to get rid of the terrorists that would reform in Afghanistan.

I don’t like the war there either and I did not like WWII, but if we had stayed out Matt would probably be speaking Japanese or German depending where he lives in the USA.

The bottom line is that terrorists and dictators respect only one thing and that is POWER. Talking as Obama, the Marxist does is not respected by these people. He just shows weakness.

Michael, do you have an e-mail address that I could send an inquiry too? We’re thinking of putting an event together at CAP and are wondering if you’re interested. Pop me an e-mail at zjilani@americanprogress.org if so.

Hi Michael — seems you’re in high demand right now. Hope you don’t mind me adding to the list. My name is Kelly Kennedy, I’m the president of Military Reporters & Editors, and we’re putting together our fall conference. One of our big issues is always access to the military, and I’d love to have you talk about your experiences there. My e-mail is kelly@kellykennedy.net. Thanks so much.